This month, a number of activities have taken place that have helped get the voice of Poole youth heard.

Ben Howard (Deputy MYP) and I attended the UKYP South West regional meeting in Taunton. This was the first meeting that would be known as the South West Regional Convention which meant that young people from youth councils and other youth groups across the South West joined UKYP in debating and discussing equality.

It was great to meet new people with different ideas about how young people can make a positive difference in their local area.

We also attended Poole’s Shadow Board meeting a couple of weeks later, where we discussed project work we need to carry out to achieve the group’s objectives.

I participated (via Skype) in the Sounds Positive Steering Group meeting as a youth representative. We heard about the initiatives implemented by the Sounds Positive team to increase the positive media coverage of young people in the South West, and discussed further ways to make progress.

Progress was also made towards the achievement of our Volunteering Priority:

• A number of us from Poole Youth Forum have signed up to volunteer at the Olympic Torch Relay celebrations, on 13 July. We are looking forward to participating in this once-in-a-lifetime event.

• I have established a team of 10 young people who are going to volunteer for The Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI) at the Bournemouth Air Show on 1 – 2 September. We are going to be helping promote beach and sea safety messages to visitors.

I look forward to reporting further progress next month!